5 Steps to Begin Your Recovery from Burnout

Written By Giacomo Sandri

Step 1: Stabilise Your Energy Through Food

Before adding more stimulation (like caffeine), you need to rebuild your energy reserves. The first step is to remove what's draining you and nourish what's depleted.

Foods to Avoid

  • Caffeine after noon, alcohol, and heavy meals late at night

  • Ultra-processed foods, refined sugar, artificial sweeteners, gluten, cow’s dairy

  • Industrial seed oils (sunflower, soybean), fried foods

  • Pesticide-laden produce (stick to the Dirty Dozen/Clean Fifteen lists)

  • Blood sugar disruptors: sweetened drinks, carb-heavy breakfasts, isolated carbs

Foods to Include

  • Protein-rich breakfasts with healthy fats and fibre

  • Organic grass-fed meats, liver, bone broth, eggs, oily fish (sardines, salmon)

  • Fermented foods (sauerkraut, kefir, yogurt) for gut health

  • Herbs and spices: turmeric + black pepper, ginger, thyme, oregano

  • Filtered water and electrolytes

  • Cooked, seasonal, whole foods (limit raw salads; prefer stews and slow-cooked meals)

Step 2: Support Mitochondrial & Nervous System Recovery with Smart Supplements

Burnout impairs your mitochondrial function (your cellular energy engines) and dysregulates the nervous system. Strategic supplementation can gently restore both.

Core Evidence-Based Supplements

  • CoQ10 (200–300 mg/day) – mitochondrial support, improves stamina

  • Acetyl-L-Carnitine (500–2000 mg/day) – mental clarity, energy metabolism

  • Omega-3s (EPA/DHA) – mood, cognition, anti-inflammatory

  • Magnesium glycinate (200–400 mg/day) – nervous system regulation, sleep

  • L-glutamine (5g/day) – gut repair and immune support

  • Beta-glucans (250–500 mg/day) – immune modulation, energy

  • Probiotics – digestive and mood support

These work synergistically with the right food foundation, not instead of it.

Step 3: Reset Your Circadian Rhythm

When burnout hits, your circadian rhythm—your body's internal clock—often breaks. The result? Morning crashes, brain fog, poor sleep, and hormone imbalances.

Daily Rhythms to Anchor You

  • Get 5–10 minutes of sunlight within 30 minutes of waking

  • Delay caffeine for at least 90 minutes after waking

  • Move your body gently in the morning (walk, yoga, light stretch)

  • Avoid screens before bed and turn off Wi-Fi (EMF protection)

  • Practice Yoga Nidra or NSDR (Non-sleep-deep-rest) in the afternoon to restore without napping

These small shifts help your nervous system feel safe, which is essential for deep recovery.

Step 4: Regulate the Nervous System Daily

You cannot "think" your way out of burnout. You need to feel safe again in your body. This means making nervous system regulation a daily non-negotiable.

Top Nervous System Practices

  • 4-7-8 or box breathing to calm the vagus nerve

  • Cold showers or face splashing to reset your mood and focus

  • Mindful eating and post-meal walks to regulate digestion and blood sugar

  • Embodiment practices (somatic movement, intuitive dance, breathwork)

  • Vagus nerve stimulation: Humming, chanting, singing

These practices signal to your brain: you’re safe, so it can shift out of survival mode. Journalling is especially useful to progressively identify unconscious patterns that might be driving your life in the background

Step 5: Rebuild Your Emotional Resilience, Boundaries & Identity

Burnout recovery isn’t just physical—it’s emotional, mental, even spiritual. Many men and women in high-pressure careers tie their self-worth to productivity. As you rebuild, you need to redefine what success feels like in your body.

Journalling & Self Reflection Practices

  • Finding your baseline: Start by figuring out which activities you can do on a day-to-day basis without causing a relapse. This will build a strong foundation for recovery.

  • The miracle question: Why do you want your health back? By establishing very clear and emotionally resonant goals, you will find a strong motivation even in times of relapses

  • Drainers vs Gainers: Become progressively more aware of the people, activities, routines and behaviours that make you feel more alive or diminish your vitality. What can you do to shift them?

  • Gratitude practice: Shift your awareness from scarcity to abundance


Final Thoughts

You don’t have to quit your job or escape somewhere tropical to find respite from your fatigue. By committing to engaging with a progressive transformation process, you can evolve into someone more embodied, aligned and deeply energised. Start with food. Layer in supplements. Honour your rhythm. Regulate your nervous system. Rebuild who you are on the other side of burnout.

At Vitalise, we can walk together a path of transformation towards a more energised body, resilient heart and clear mind. If you feel called to explore how the combination of nutrition, herbal medicine and mushrooms, lifestyle coaching and psychological support can help you in resolving chronic fatigue and chronic pain, I’d invite you to sign up to my mailing list to download

The Herbal & Holistic Medicine Guide For Exhausted High Performing Individuals: A comprehensive strategy to relieve symptoms of burnout and chronic fatigue


Giacomo Sandri
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